Back Home
by ITryToWriteSomeStories
Summary: AU. The two Stans never fell out and consequently live peaceful lives. The twins still visited Grunkle Stan every Summer and now there back for good. Or are they?
1. Chapter 1: Back Again?

Chapter 1: **Back Again?**

* * *

As this story begins, the sleepy town of Gravity Falls Oregon was slowly waking up to another, seemingly mundane day. The woods towered around the edge of the village and as usual the atmospheric hum of animal chatter filled the air. Together with the surrounding forest, the people of Gravity Falls awoke and started to go about their morning routines. The air was cut with sharp 'thunks' as Manly Dan chopped wood for the fire, the scrap heap was alive with the hammering and yodelling of crazy old man mcGucket, and little Gideon Gleeful could even be heard more than two houses away as he sang over breakfast.

While all else was perfectly normal, and a regular daily occurrence, two people approached by van, who definitely did not belong...

* * *

As Dipper Pines spied the town through the tall trees, he couldn't help but recall his last five (or wait... was it six?..) summers he and his twin sister Mabel had spent there. It had been a blessing in disguise when their parents had told them that they were to stay with their great uncle Stan for the Summer at age 12. Both he and Mabel, who was currently asleep and drooling in the front next to him, had been apprehensive at first. They had never met their grunkle and were dreading staying in some backwards town with nothing to do. Luckily, that was so far away from the truth. From the first day they had stepped foot into Gravity Falls, both siblings could tell that the quiet unassuming town was hiding a lot.

The first summer they had spent at Grunkle Stan's shop 'Pines Pawns' had involved adventures with gnomes, lake monsters, dinosaurs, and so much more. However, instead of the expected 12 year old pre-teen reaction of terror, Dipper and Mabel were caught up in all the excitement, and were soon hunting the danger out for themselves. They had eagerly awaited the end of each school year until they could come back to discover more of the weird and wonderful sights that the not-so-peaceful woodland town had to offer.

* * *

Dipper was gradually snapped out of his reminiscing as he pulled up in front of a shabby old building with flashing neon lights and faded posters glued to the insides of dusty windows. He turned to his now snoring sister and nudged her shoulder gently.

"Mabel we're here, wake up." With a muffled snort, Mabel opened her eyes and yawned as she rubbed the rest of the sleep away.

"What? At Grunkle Stan's?" Dipper turned the ignition and threw open the van door.

"Yeah, we're here. Lets go say hi, we can surprise him." The two jumped out of the van, one more clumsily than the other, and approached the familiar entrance. Ignoring the paint-flecked ' _closed_ ' sign, they pushed through into the dim shop, with the soft tinkle of the door's bell sounding behind them. The building was stuffed with odd trinkets and obviously phoney artefacts, as well as some ridiculously expensive fake jewellery. Both twins were startled by a loud shout from the depths of the store.

"Can't you idiots read! The sign says closed! As in, not open!" Smiling Dipper called back,

"Well, I guess if you don't want us here we can just leave now!" But before he even finished his sentence, their great uncle Stanley Pines shoved his head through the signposted 'staff only' door, and laughed.

"Kids! Woah, you've definitely grown again." He lightly punched Dipper's shoulder and gave Mabel a quick squeeze before she collapsed into a cushy armchair with an outrageous price tag attached. Chuckling, he continued;

"So how come you two are here already, last I heard you weren't arriving for a week?"

"Well, we didn't really have anything to do and we don't exactly have as many friends at home as we do here, so... we bumped it up a bit" Dipper replied quickly.

"Yeah, and my brilliant bro Dip over here lost our house keys while mum and Dad were away so we didn't exactly have anywhere else to stay." Mabel exclaimed with an indignant gasp.

"Couldn't you stay with your great uncle Stanford?" Their other grunkle asked.

"Nah he's busy working on some new doohickey for the university, and you know how he gets when he's working on something."

"True, I could hardly stand it when we were kids. But anyways, did you two want to stay over here?"

"Oh no, me and Dipper already found this awesome, creepy shack in the woods for a bargain, so we were gonna move straight in there."

"You're welcome to visit any time." Added Dipper, and agreeing, Stan replied

"I'll take you up on that some time the shop's closed, I could use a break."

* * *

After an hour or so, the siblings decided they needed to get moving, so they bade Stan goodbye and drove the rented van deep into the woods. They soon reached the old, weathered cabin just as the sun hung closely above the treetops, basking the whole area in an orange glow. Mabel gazed up at the stained lumber and whistled.

"Well Dipper, this definitely looks like the home of a serial killer. Great choice you made on this one."

"Aw come on Mabel, it'll look just fine after we fix it up. We just need to spend a bit of time and effort on her. Shame Soos isn't here to help."

"Yeah well he's happy in Portland with Melody."

After a small sigh, Mabel continued,

"Well, let's unpack then shall we bro?" And with the decision made, the twins started lugging boxes from the van to the house. Slowly, it dawned on them that they shared very few belongings and the many boxes they thought they had packed only took about an hour to be unloaded into the front room. Dipper locked the van up and heard Mabel screech from near the top of the house,

"I call the spooky attic!"

"Fine! Have it, you weirdo! I bet it's disgusting and Cold!" Dipper shouted back, secretly berating himself under his breath for letting Mabel get first choice of room. Dipper continued,

"And you better not leave me with all the boxes! You know my noodle arms get tired after heavy lifting!"

"Yeah Dip! Just let me move all my stuff up first." And with that, they both started distributing their meagre possessions around the house.

* * *

Cardboard boxes now forgotten in the cellar, Dipper searched through the measly supplies of food they had brought along and picked out a can of beans and some suspiciously green bread. A few minutes later, and his bubbly sister had thundered down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Dipper, you got dinner ready yet? Oh, well... maybe we can get some takeaway." Dipper huffed in defence of his admittedly lame cooking skills.

"What?! It's not like I had much to use here. And we can't get takeaway, or had you forgotten we live in the middle of the frickin' woods?"

"If we got here in a van, then a pizza guy definitely can."

"Mabel, no. We just got here, and you can suffer through my beans on toast."

"Fine fine, but I get to choose the dinner-time entertainment."

"Sure, whatever. As long as it's not..."

"Ducktective here we come!" Dipper groaned in despair.

* * *

As they watched a duck in a Deerstalker hat solve mysteries, the two fell into easy conversation and discussed their future in Gravity Falls.

"Well we'll have to look around for some odd jobs to pay the bills, but I'm hoping we can get out and start documenting even more of the strange activity around here." Dipper said to Mabel.

"Well we could find Wendy and see if her Dad needs any help lumber-jacking." She replied, half joking, but Dipper shut the idea down,

"No, she's moved away, I saw on her Facebook."

"Ooh, has Little Dipper been stalking someone?" Mabel questioned, giggling as Dipper turned bright red and stuttered out a quick denial.

"N-No! I just happened to notice, we are friends after all."

"Well, whatever. She's gone and Ducktective just found out his evil twin was actually trying to save their long-lost triplet, and not trying to destroy the world as he previously thought."

"Ugh, what a stupid plot." Dipper groaned in response.

"You know you love it, and besides, we can deal with it all in the morning."

"Yeah, I guess. But you know what? I did bring a new journal with us that we can start filling up."

"Cool, what's on the cover this time?"

"A pine tree. I thought it would be an appropriate nod to our name."

"Well, it's better than the others you've picked so far. I mean, I loved the llama, but a bag of ice? I mean, come on man."

"Mm, true. Well, I'm gonna head up to bed. See you in the morning."

"Yeah yeah, 'night." Replied Mabel, her eyes still glued to the screen, and after a tired chuckle, Dipper Pines made the trek up to bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, with his yawning sister soon behind him.

* * *

However, little did the two sleeping twins know, A dark and ancient being slumbered along side them...


	2. Chapter 2: A Web of Mystery

Chapter 2: **A Web of Mystery**

* * *

Dipper was draped lazily over the sofa reading through one of his old journals when he felt a light touch creep up the sole of his foot. Tired from pedalling merchandise at Stan's all of the previous day, he didn't even bother raising his eyes from the page.

"Cut it out Mabel I'm too tired." The sister in question walked in holding two bulging water balloons and whined,

"Aww Dip, how do you always know?" Confused that the source of the ticklish feeling gradually moving up his leg was not in fact his sister, he glanced down and a decidedly feminine scream echoed throughout the house.

"Relax Dipper! It's just a teeny weeny spider!" Mabel choked out amidst peals of shrieking laughter. Thoroughly shaken, Dipper responded grumpily,

"You know I hate spiders. They're just so... unnatural." And it was true; ever since their encounter with a shape-shifter's unholy 'twins and spider mix', Dipper had been terrified of the beastly things. Having sufficiently calmed himself down through repeated hummings of the lamby lamby song under his breath, Dipper continued,

"Well, now that I'm up, do you want to head down to town and pick up some groceries? We're running pretty low."

"Yeah sure, I'll just save these for later." Mabel answered, smoothly depositing the water balloons into the pockets of her woollen sweater. Dipper grabbed his signature hat and the two left the house chattering about nothing in particular, leaving the frequent scratches sounding from the attic unnoticed.

* * *

An exhausting and sweaty walk later, Dipper and Mabel were approaching the town very red in the face.

"You know we really need to do something about our transportation problem. I can't walk this far every time we want to even see another person." Mabel complained, panting.

"Yeah, you're probably right. But we can't exactly afford a car. We can hardly afford to buy food without grunkle Stan's help."

"Well we need to think of something! I can't stand all this walking."

"Oh stop complaining will you? We're here now." And it was true; they had just entered the town outskirts, but, funnily enough, there was no one in sight.

"Huh." Said Dipper, confused.

"I wonder where everyone is."

"Enough wondering! Let's just get the food and go, I can't stand this heat!" Mabel groaned, fanning her face dramatically.

"You know you can take the jumper off. And don't you think it's weird that no one's around?"

"Why would I ever take my jumper off Dip? How else can I express myself without articles of woollen clothing?" Too tired to argue, Dipper instead pointed out a figure running towards them, shrieking all the way.

"Run for your lives! So many legs! Time is Short! Believe me! Believe meeeeee!" And with that, crazy old man mcGucket sprinted past them wearing nothing but his dirty brown hat and a flimsy rubber ring.

"I definitely did not want to see that in my lifetime." Said Dipper with a small shake of his head.

"Nothing to be done bro, let's just get what we need and get home. Mama needs her beauty sleep." Dipper sighed and the two headed out to collect their supplies.

* * *

Dipper woke the next day to a noise, much like the clicking of his sister's knitting needles. Sitting up and wiping his eyes, he looked forwards and saw his closet door opened by a thin crack, and the strange sounds coming from within.

"Mabel, you better not be 'fixing' my clothes again." saying the word with his hands lazily forming air quotes.

"Last time you did, I had to go to school with stupid pink patterns all over my shirts. Don't you remember how much fun people made of me?" But, for the second time in two days, Mabel walked into the room innocent and confused.

"What are you moaning about now Dipper? I just woke up." Turning as she talked, to look at the cupboard and it's mysterious contents.

"Well then, what the heck is in there?" Dipper asked, getting up himself to look. When, all of a sudden, a black blur flew out of the closet and pounced on him.

"Yaaargh!" Dipper cried, flailing about,trying to forcefully remove the offending creature from his torso. Mabel ran over and plucked the thing up, hugging it to her chest.

"Awww Dip, looook,its just an ickle spider. Isn't he cute?" And sure enough, burrowing into Mabel's sweater was a spider the size of a small dog. This sight, not only caused Dipper to scream even louder, but made Mabel beam ever wider.

"I'm gonna call him Scuttles." She said stroking its furry abdomen.

"We are not keeping that thing." Dipper responded, looking completely distraught at the idea.

"'Course we are silly, look at the little cutie. He loves me. Don't you Scuttles? don't you love your new mommy?" With a dejected sigh, Dipper relented and said,

"Fine, but just keep him out of my room." Frowning he looked into his closet.

"He's eaten most of my shorts."

"Whatever Dipper, you pretty much only wear one pair anyway." Mabel replied, walking out the door.

* * *

The twins got ready for the day, which now apparently included brushing the giant spider's disgusting hair, observed Dipper, as a noticeably cleaner looking Scuttles was carried into the kitchen. Mabel plopped him down on a chair and the ever-moving bundle of legs jumped straight off and made a beeline (spiderline?) to a damp corner above the cupboards. Dipper dropped his spoon and deposited the rest of his breakfast in the garbage, looking queasy. They both spent the rest of the wet, rainy Sunday relaxed on the couch. Mabel watching TV and knitting, Dipper sitting far away and sketching Scuttles in his notebook. As he underlined 'Loves shorts' in his journal, Mabel asked him,

"You wanna come for a walk through the forest with us Dip? Scuttles needs to exercise. We can't keep him cooped up inside all day." Hoping the spider might run away when given the chance, Dipper readily agreed.

* * *

The clouds had dispersed, and the sun had returned, creating, actually, a rather pleasant afternoon stroll. Mabel walked ahead with Scuttles at her heels, while Dipper followed behind looking down every so often, to take a note of something.

"Seen anything cool yet Dip?" Mabel called back.

"Not really, just making some notes on your new 'pet'."

"Like what? He's just a spider. And the cutest widdle thing I've seen since Waddles." Mabel said, directing the last part towards Scuttles before making an excessive amount of baby noises.

"Just a spider? Mabel look at the thing, its massive. I'm surprised it hasn't decided to eat us yet." Mabel gasped.

"Eat us? Scuttles would never do anything like that. He loves me, and we're gonna have so much fun together." A rustle through the trees distracted Mabel from her ministrations and she glanced up.

"Bro, did'ya hear that?" Dipper, also looking up, answered.

"Yeah, I can't see anything though. Probably just a bird or something." Satisfied with the answer, Mabel directed her gaze to the horizon, picked up Scuttles and agreed,

"Yeah, probably. It's getting pretty late though. We need to get back so I can tuck this cutie in and read him some bedtime stories over a nice warm glass of milk."

"What? Spiders don't even have lips, how would it drink out of a glass? that makes no sense..." Dipper trailed off when Mabel gave him a quick glare.

"Yeah sure, lets just get back shall we?" He finished, turning around and setting off back home with Mabel and Scuttles in tow.

* * *

Upon reaching the cabin, they found it in tatters. Entering through a hole that used to be the door, Dipper traced a finger over the huge gouges in the wooden frame.

"What in all hell happened here? The house is in ruins!" Mabel followed the trail of destruction upstairs, and Dipper heard her panicked scream from below.

"Dipper! My room! It's destroyed! AND THEY DESTROYED SCUTTLES' BED!" Dipper patrolled around the bottom floor, inspecting the damage when he came upon a huge web covering the living room.

"Hey, Mabel! Come down here, I think I know what caused this disaster." Hearing her footsteps thudding down each stair, Dipper continued forward, brushing the sticky material off of his clothes. As Mabel came rushing in hugging Scuttles tightly to her, Dipper had discovered what he thought was the escape route of whatever had wrecked the house. Looking out of the smashed window and pointing towards a hole in the undergrowth at the edge of the forest he told Mabel,

"I'm pretty sure that whatever did all this went that way."

"Well then let's follow the jerk, he ruined Scuttles' new home!" And with that declaration the twins prepared themselves for a confrontation. Dipper grabbed a shovel (for protection), a torch, and met Mabel in the front room, or as it was now, the large hole in the house.

"Really you're gonna wear that thing?" Dipper asked Mabel when he saw she was wearing her 'Huggy Wuvvy Tummy Bundle', which she had previously used for her pet pig, now containing her giant spider.

"Yeah! I need my hands free if we're gonna take this thing down." And with that she slammed the tire iron she had gathered into her palm, unintentionally wincing. Dipper sighed and with an exclamation Mayor Cutebiker would be proud of, said:

"All right then, let's get 'em."

* * *

Dipper shivered as he and his sister pushed their way through the partially flattened bushes. Mabel had taken on a steely exterior and was meticulously destroying all the plant-life she could reach with her sturdy iron bar. Dipper was worried about her, she wasn't usually this aggressive. Normally she dealt with her problems with a reliable can-do attitude. 'Something must really be bothering her' thought Dipper, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what. He was shaken from his pondering when Mabel called from out of eye-shot,

"Uhhh... Bro? I think I found what ruined the house." As he ducked under the log obscuring his vision, he replied,

"Yeah? What is it then? We can make a plan to..." But he trailed off as soon as he noticed what Mabel had stopped in front of. Ahead of them were the most spiders Dipper had ever seen in his life. But these weren't ordinary spiders, no, these were the size of small cars, and each one bared a pair of sharp, glistening fangs. The two parties of twins and spiders stood very still and stared each other down until Dipper let out and even louder scream than the few he had made in the last couple of days. With which, Dipper turned around, grabbed Mabel's arm and together they sprinted away.

* * *

Having left the original trail and now running aimlessly, Dipper had not noticed the large drop they were now falling down. They landed together on a rusty metal surface and rolled off onto the muddy floor. Quickly pulling herself up, Mabel noticed the metal thing they had fallen on was in fact a dirty old pick-up truck. Still reeling with terror, she pulled her brother into the front with her and they simultaneously slammed the doors shut.

"Dipper! What do we do? I think they're still following us!" Surely enough a large thump reverberated through the body of the pick-up. A set of sharp pincers the size of two arms stabbed through the roof in front of them.

"It's Scuttles! He's theirs! We need to give him back!"

"NO! I can't leave Scuttles! He needs me!" Mabel protested loudly. The fangs punctured the roof a second time and Dipper grabbed his twin's shoulders and shook her roughly.

"Snap out of it Mabel, Scuttles is their baby! We NEED to give him back!" Mabel looked tearfully into scuttles' eight beady eyes as he struggled to get out of the holder trapping him to her stomach.

"But..." She whimpered.

"NOW Mabel! throw him out the window!" She gave Dipper an angry look but frantically unclasped the many straps on the Huggy Wuvvy Tummy Bundle. As the last latch was undone, Scuttles scrambled up the car door and threw himself out the window. The fangs came down for a third time even closer to their heads, and another of the hulking beasts shoved its hairy, many-eyed head up against the window.

"Oh God what do we do?! They're still angry!" Shouted Dipper, shaking uncontrollably. Mabel pulled the glove compartment open and with a quick rummage around inside, she had what she was searching for. She pushed the key into the ignition and they both held their breath as the engine revved. It revved, and it revved, and finally, after seemingly a decade of waiting the battered truck roared into life.

"GO!" Dipper shouted and Mabel slammed the acceleration into the floor so hard it must have made a dent. Lurching forwards, the truck sped into the woods, and the giant spider tumbled from the roof. While his sister dodged the advancing trees, Dipper turned in his seat to try and catch a glimpse of the crazed arachnids. But nothing was to be seen.

"Mabel, It's okay, they've gone. you should maybe slow down..." But he stopped when he looked over to his distraught sister, tears streaming down her face and the sound of the motor interrupted every so often with loud sniffles. Dipper averted his gaze and silently stared out of the window for the remainder of the trip home.

* * *

They parked the car in the open clearing outside the shack and got out. Mabel made her way into the house and ran up the stairs, and Dipper sighed, now understanding why she had been so angry earlier. He locked the door, went inside and took off his muddy boots. After throwing them haphazardly onto the floor of their destroyed front room, he nervously crept up to the attic. Before he could even knock on the door, Mabel sobbed from within,

"Go away Dipper, I don't wanna talk right now." Unable to bear the pathetic noises she was making, he prepared himself, and pushed the door open, which promptly fell off of its hinges. Sitting on her bed, crying in Sweater town, Mabel looked crushed.

"Look, Mabel," he started, sheepishly entering the room,

"I know you loved Scuttles, but can't you see he wanted to be with the rest of his kind? It wasn't fair of us to keep him locked up in here."

"I know that Dip, I know. I just... you don't get it." Mabel cried, sobbing.

"I do, I do, it's Waddles isn't it. You thought you had a new waddles. Right?" Her voice became very small as she answered from underneath the layers of wool.

"I... I.. I miss him bro."

"I know Mabel, so do I. But we can get a dog or something. We don't need a giant spider." She gave a wet chuckle and hiccuped as her head rose from the depths of her jumper.

"And there is one good thing that came of this." Mabel set her steely gaze upon him as he went on, laughing nervously,

"We got a free truck out of it. No more marathons just to get to town." Mabel's frown changed into a tiny smile, and she laughed back.

"Okay Dipper, thanks. Really, thank you." Now smiling he rose from her bed and moved away to the door.

"Just call me if you need me sis. I'm always here if you need me." And with that, he left.

Rising from her bed to get ready for the night, movement caught Mabel's eye through the round attic window. The trees were full of tiny shining eyes. She smiled softly to herself and went soundly, to sleep.


End file.
